Next 10 Ventures creates $50 million fund for content creator economy

YouTube helped build the “creator economy,” or people who get paid for a living to entertain us with their videos. Now a former YouTube executive, Benjamin Grubbs, has created Next 10 Ventures, a $50 million operating fund to invest in content creators. The idea is to accelerate the growth of creator-based content, commerce, and community. It’s a fund to find the next YouTube, or the next great YouTubers, or the livestreaming masters on Twitch. Yes, it’s the kind of fund that you wouldn’t have created just five years ago, because only recently has content creation become a hugely lucrative field, as authentic video creators are supplanting traditional media in communicating directly with fans. We focused on this idea, which we referred to in part as the Leisure Economy, at our recent GamesBeat Summit event. Based in Los Angeles and Singapore, Next 10 will start investing its capital to develop new businesses and technology services centered around the creator economy that has emerged in the past decade from the mass adoption of digital video and social media platforms. Above: Benjamin Grubbs, CEO of Next 10 Ventures. Image Credit: Next 10 Ventures In March 2018, there were more than 50,000 creators with at least 500,000 followers active on digital video platforms, and these creators amassed over 350 billion views, according to data by Tubular Labs. Grubbs will be founder and CEO. He has worked closely with creators as the former global director of top creator partnerships at YouTube and in other leadership… [Read full story]